Shiness, a combination of a fantasy role-playing game and a manga series, is the first effort from French indie studio Enigami, which is launching a $100,000 Kickstarter campaign for the project today.

Enigami created a fantastical world with its own fictional language, where various races live among islands floating in the sky. Players start out as a character named Chado who's searching for his friend Poky, a quest that leads into an epic journey across the celestial islands. Eventually, players will be able to put together a party of three characters from a group of five as they explore the realm.
According to Enigami, the inspiration for Shiness came largely from manga and anime such as Naruto and Dragon Ball, so Shiness' battle system draws from fighting games. Battles are one-on-one fights that take place within the world, and support characters on the edge of the area can provide assistance. In addition to standard melee combat, players will have to incorporate magic attacks into their arsenal if they want to succeed.
Along with the video game, Enigami is working on a Shiness manga series. Readers of the manga will pick up clues that will help them uncover hidden quests in the game. Quests will affect players' reputation, which changes the tenor of their relationships with NPCs, and players' actions have the power to change the world.
Enigami is aiming to launch The Lightning Kingdom, the first episode of Shiness, in the first quarter of 2015 on Mac and Windows PC, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions possible as well.

Detail of the game:

A long time ago on a planet called Mahera, many species lived together in harmony. They were all linked by a spiritual energy, source of life and progress. This Energy was called the Shi.
As the civilizations were thriving, the Shi started dwindling which eventually led to a devastating war. The storm of violence unleashed by living beings became unstoppable. The green grass in the valleys was coated by ashes and the rain suddenly became a reminder of the horror suffered by the crying of a planet its own children were mistreating. The all-encompassing link the Shi was once able to maintain failed, hence causing the core of the planet - its heart - to collapse. Crackles appeared all around the globe and then, in a gigantic explosion, Mahera became a cloud of dirt and lighting bolts, enclaving each civilization to its own part of the globe: Meteora masses of land-floating nearby from one another, forever separated both physically and spiritually.
Since those dark times, Human, Sheiks and Waki rebuilt their lives separately and life went on.This disruption of the nature caused Mahera to split into celestial islands, called Meteoras and by then signing of the end of an era.Since then,Human,Sheiks and Waki rebuilt themselves separately and life went on.
Chado and Poky, two friends from the Kimpao islands in the land of Wakis, will accidentally land on Adorn Island. You will play Chado (at first) and your first goal will be to find your lost friend Poky. Little will you realize, at that time, that you will be involved in a story that will reveal a far more important destiny ...
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Chado can summon a rock on his back. It can be thrown, dropped or be used as a weight. As you progress in the game, Chado will be able to :

summon multiple rocks.

summon different sizes of rocks.

Depending on the rocks' size and Chado’s level, throwing a rock before a battle can stun an enemy, which is sometimes useful… _________________________________________________________
His mechanical engineering skills actually span from his ability to manipulate magnetic fields and influence electrical streams. Therefore, Poky can repair machines, or pull to him the evil ones he is fighting against. He must beware that others don’t see him, or they will attack.
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Rosalya can summon fire, lighting up any scene and dissipating darkness. She is capable of opening paths, detecting traps as well as reveal hidden or invisible foes and animals.
Use your brain to combine these abilities to progress through the game, but don’t forget that your group can only count 3 characters at any given time! _________________________________________________________
Kayenne has a psychic ability: telekinesis. Using his power, he can move distant doodads (only if not mechanical), activates assets or paralyze enemies in combat. _________________________________________________________
Armed with a plant whip, Askel can catch objects on others (friend or foe), and otherwise unreachable items (like an equipment). He is very useful to expand your inventory.
Shiness will make you explore many areas of the game by leaving on quests, resolving puzzles, fighting against enemies, bosses, notorious monsters and hunting animals to get items.
We wanted to make Shiness intuitive and accessible whilst maintaining a high level of interest for more hardcore gamers. There will be a bunch of very hard challenges in the game that only the best of you will be able to handle!
Brace yourselves for some epic fights...
Since Shiness is inspired of manga comic books (think about Dragon Ball & Naruto for example... ), it made sense for us to make our battle system a fighting game.
But since it's a RPG, we needed to have a certain level of strategy depth during fights. Far from traditional turn-based RPG systems, we wanted fighting and exploration to remain closely connected at each and every moment. Therefore, every fight happens directly on the main map with barely no transition between the fight and the exploration modes (the only difference being the summoning of the Arena), maintaining a fast rhythm and constant in-game action interactions !
We mixed magic and close combat to make the player come up with many strategies for defeating your enemies. Just like in classic Fighting Games you will be able to punch, kick, counter attacks, dodge as well as use combos!
Arena :
Just like in any fighting game, your foe and you will fight by throwing each other punches, kicks, devastating combos, spells, and so on. The arena is linked to one of the element (water, fire, earth, air) which interacting with your magical statistics and takes strategy to whole a new level: using a spell from the same element than the arena will drastically increase its power, range, or effect... But you should take into account that it does apply to your enemy as well…
However, even if your character faces an enemy in a closed arena, your nearest teammates can interact with the fight.
Companions that you have configured before the battle will act according to what happens during your fight. Shiness' combat system is highly dynamic. Given its wide range of attacks, your hero will only be at his full potential if you memorize all specials combo combinations.
You could also do combos by completing successfully a series of actions. Those special attacks are more powerful and impressive.
Finally, you will be able to trigger some Hyper Modes, spectacular sequences which will change depending on the designs and powers of each character. By following a series of actions, the "Hyper Mode" will launch a devastating attack.Engaging the battle :
As players, we feel bored of RPG with farming quest without any interesting story-line. We are spending considerable time and efforts to prepare for you a great story-line with each quest :Investigate, interrogate, defeat strong notorious monsters, and face tough challenges.
One of the points of interest of Shiness is also its cross-media part : by reading the comic book, you will find some clues about the game ! Read carefully, and then trigger these special quest in the game...
But the main point about the quest system is the following: for each and every quest in the game, several ways to solve it shall be available!
As an example, imagine a very simple quest in which your group will have to pick up an item lying in a cave, guarded by a bunch of enemies. Some of you will fight and defeat all of the monsters, pick the item and bring it back. Others will infiltrate the cave, stun or paralyze enemies, grab the item and run away before they wake up. Others still will directly try to negotiate with the enemy leader to buy the item back... Depending on your choices and actions, your reputation and quest rewards will be different, and after a while affect the way NPCs interact with you.
Unlike most of the Role Playing Games, the world will change according to your decisions. Thus, if you use diplomacy in most circumstances, some areas will be more welcoming; some cities will expand, new shops could open and bring in specific items…Hunting :
The Meteora islands are the living place of several harmless creatures. During your adventures, you will have to hunt them for the purpose of quests or simply to get new items. Some say there are creatures that carry very rare items… Animals are harmless and shy, every little being will run away whenever you’re around.
Whether they fly, crawl or swim, a great diversity of animals inhabits the lands of Meteora.
In Shiness, martial arts are often more efficient than weapons.
Thus, you will have the opportunity to learn and equip 3 types of arts on your characters:

Physical Art: Enable to learn new combos and Hyper Mode

Magical Art: Enable to learn new spells.

Supply Art: This one is generated from the combination of Physical and Magical and it will affect the behavior of the equipped character in all of his social interactions.

During the game, you will get several disciplines in order to learn new techniques and grow more powerful.
Each character carries his own props such as bracelets, necklaces, etc… Those props changes the look of the heroes as well as their statistics, their affinities with the natural elements and even the reputation of the team. You will be able to assign objects (in limited quantities) to your characters in order to use them during fights.
In Shiness, the Shi is used to fuel magic spells. In order to use it efficiently, you will have to master the alchemy of the elements and know the weaknesses of your opponents. You can cast several during a fight such as damage spells, defensive spells (health care, increase of statistics…) or even status effects (poison, blindness, paralysis etc.).
There are two steps to cast a spell:Channeling: Your hero summons the Shi and focuses (you can channel as long as you want but it will cap after a certain amount). Channeling time depends on the spell’s parameters (damage, resistance, area of effect…)Launching: Aim the opponent with the spell.
However, be careful because the spells you have selected are limited. It is up to you to wisely prepare your spells before a tough fight.You can be interrupted (so does your opponent) while casting a spell if your enemy succeeds to hit on you at the right time.